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China Tries To Censor Data About Nearly 1 Billion People in Poverty – Newsweek

Posted: January 4, 2024 at 3:31 am

China Tries To Censor Data About Nearly 1 Billion People in Poverty  Newsweek

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Iowa School District removes over 70 books without following proper review procedures – Blogging Censorship

Posted: at 3:31 am

The Dallas Center-Grimes Community School District in Grimes, Iowa has removed 73 books from school libraries in an attempt to comply with Iowa Senate File 496, which prohibits school libraries from having any materials with descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act.

The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the school board to urge them to improve their procedures for reviewing materials they suspect to be in violation of Iowa law, ensuring that important books remain available on library shelves.

Read NCACs full letter to the Dallas Center-Grimes Community School District here: Click here for a full-screen view:

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Chinese election interference tests Taiwans capability to defend freedom of speech – Index on Censorship

Posted: at 3:31 am

As Taiwan gears up for the presidential and legislative election on 13 January, the Chinese government is also ramping up its efforts to interfere. From sponsored trips to China for local leaders, economic coercion, fake opinion polls, and disinformation campaigns, some analysts say the wide-ranging tactics that Beijing has unleashed will have an impact on the elections outcome.

In recent weeks, Taiwanese authorities have launched investigations into several cases of individuals attempting to sway voters by inviting local borough chiefs and village leaders on group tours to China. These trips are partially sponsored by local Chinese authorities.

During the trips, participants were allegedly encouraged by officials from Chinas propaganda department to vote for political parties and candidates favoured by Beijing. At least one man has been indicted while several others are facing ongoing investigations.

Apart from sponsored trips, Beijing also rolled out coercive economic measures to pressure Taiwan, suspending tariff relief on imports of 12 Taiwanese petrochemical products, and blaming it on the trade barriers enacted by Taiwans ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

Since 2023 is a major year of cross-strait exchange for China, Chinese authorities have devoted a lot of resources to facilitate influence campaigns against Taiwan, Puma Shen, chairperson of Taipei-based research group Doublethink Lab, told Index on Censorship. They want to make sure that Taiwanese people feel threatened but also are not too afraid of the influence campaigns from China.

The most recent example of Chinas influence campaign is an investigation into alleged lip-sync by popular Taiwanese rock band Mayday, a practice that is banned for live musicians in China. A Taiwanese security agency internal memo claims the investigation is Beijings attempt to pressure the rock band into publicly supporting the position that Taiwan is a part of China.

Shen from Doublethink Lab said Taiwanese people who have huge financial stakes in China, such as artists and businessmen, often become targets of Chinas influence campaign. Even though they are earning money in China, they are more like victims, he said.

Multi-pronged cognitive warfare

In addition to economic coercion and influencing local politicians, some experts say China has also launched multi-pronged cognitive warfare against Taiwan ahead of the election, amplifying narratives criticising the ruling party through state media outlets and initiating disinformation campaigns on social media platforms, including TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.

Over the last few months, Chinas state-run media outlets have repeated the narrative that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is pushing Taiwan to the brink of war with its efforts to pursue Taiwan independence. The narrative resonates with criticisms against the DPP by opposition candidates in Taiwan, who have repeatedly accused DPPs presidential candidate, Lai Ching-te, of being the golden child of Taiwan independence.

There are also signs that Chinese state media and online troll groups are amplifying narratives aimed at damaging the image and credibility of the Taiwanese government, including controversial domestic issues such as the de-sinicization of Taiwans curriculum and scepticism toward the Taiwanese governments deepened relations with the USA.

According to Taiwan AI Labs, online troll groups have mirrored narratives promoted by Chinese state media, including the Peoples Daily, Haiwainet, Xinhua News Agency, Global Times, and China Central Television (CCTV). While there is no direct evidence to prove that China is behind all online troll groups, Taiwan AI Labs said their behaviours fit the criteria of autocratic countries interference in democratic elections.

Since the online troll groups promote narratives about Taiwanese domestic issues and U.S. President Joe Biden and there is a high similarity between the narratives they promote and the narratives preferred by Chinese state media, we can conclude that it fits the methods that autocratic countries use to interfere in democratic elections, Ethan Tu, the founder of Taiwan AI Labs, said.

Compared to Chinas efforts to interfere in previous Taiwan elections, it is becoming harder to determine whether disinformation targeting the upcoming Taiwanese election originates from China or not.

This time around, its very difficult to determine whether the disinformation originates from China or is created by actors within Taiwan, Chiaoning Su, an associate professor in communication, journalism, and public relations at Oakland University, told Index on Censorship.

In her view, China has built up a better understanding of public opinion in Taiwan and they realise that for efforts of election interference to work, the narratives they amplify need to match the trend in Taiwans public opinion.

The way that China is amplifying social economic issues such as the controversy of lack of eggs or the debate about reducing the amount of ancient Chinese literature in the curriculum shows that their efforts to initiate disinformation campaign are becoming more localised and harder to trace, Su said.

Shen from Doublethink Lab said one of the main goals of Chinas disinformation campaign is to denigrate democracy. They want to show the Taiwanese public that Taiwans democracy is a mess and that while the DPP claims to protect democracy and freedom, in the end, it is not democratic and free at all, he told Index on Censorship.

Since Taiwan is a democracy that values freedom of speech, Shen thinks Taiwanese authorities need to deal with the threats that come with Chinas election interference through ways that will safeguard Taiwanese peoples freedom of expression, by specifically identifying remarks which originate from sources external to Taiwan.

Otherwise, they will fall into Chinas trap, he said.

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Laws banning semi-automatic weapons and library censorship to take effect in Illinois – Index-Journal

Posted: at 3:31 am

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What should we expect in 2024? We asked three futurists – ISRAEL21c

Posted: at 3:30 am

Its fair to say that 2023 was one of Israels worst years ever.

First there was a growing schism around the controversial government plan to overhaul the judiciary. And just when it seemed we were heading into a civil war, a war of a different sort was thrust upon us by Hamas in its murderous attacks of October 7.

Against that grim backdrop, we asked three futurists what we might expect in 2024.

US-based futurist, media pundit and serial entrepreneur Michael Fertik says the biggest trend may not be visible to the average person but its transforming every high-tech industry and that is artificial intelligence (AI).

Fertik is a founding member of the World Economic Forum Agenda Council on the Future of the Internet, and founder of Heroic Ventures, an early-stage VC focused on Silicon Valley and Israel.

Fertik predicts that in the field of visual AI, gaming and fashion experiences will see radical overhauls unfold in how gamers create their own environments and how consumers preview their wardrobe and accessory choices.

An example from Heroics Israeli portfolio is Exists.ai, which is building a generative AI game creation platform enabling the generation of production-ready multiplayer games in minutes.

In fintech, he says, AI will soon become the most important tool that investors of all kinds, from retail to hedge funds, use to improve their analysis and make decisions.

Israels ProntoNLP, for instance, is powering investment decisions with hyper-accurate large language models for financial analysis. Another Israeli fintech in his portfolio, Sunbit, uses AI and machine learning to offer products and manage risk in pay-over-time technology.

Fertik also believes that in 2024, AI will continue transforming healthcare and despite setbacks in 2023 the development of autonomous vehicles.

Self-driving technology, he says, is not only very good but in most cases better than the average human driver. We may not see [autonomous] highway driving yet, but we should expect a return to cities and a marked growth in campus- and other closed-environment applications.

Fertik tells ISRAEL21c that Israel is considered a top-four country in artificial intelligence.

Israel not only has strength in the basic science, but many of the skills and applications that give life to Israels excellence in cyber have cross-application in AI. In many ways, Israeli cyber has already been in AI-mode for years, with breakthrough machine learning that enables its high-throughput analysis and threat detection.

Fertik predicts that the current war will have a silver lining of accelerating Israels AI development and leadership.

The war both requires and enables Israel to build and train unique models that assist in target detection, identification and prioritization, he says.

Millions of hours of video and audio are being analyzed by computer and re-analyzed by expert IDF personnel in order to differentiate hostages from terrorists, civilians from Hamas, friendly fire from enemy attacks, and immediate-priority targets vs. less pressing threats, Fertik explains.

These new, unexpected, and regrettably hard-won datasets will be the training ground for novel and accurate models.

These AI developments will, for instance, impact civilian robotics with more accurate self-piloting, more accurate handling of objects, and more accurate perception of new and diverse environments.

Perhaps even more important is that the soldiers operating in these fields will, like their cousins in [signal intelligence Unit] 8200 and similar units, eventually return to the civilian sector and be uniquely equipped to offer real-life AI insights and learning in defense fields but just as importantly outside of defense fields to the Israeli and non-Israeli companies they join and found.

Israel will see many allied and even non-allied countries seek out Israels excellence and experience in the years to come.

Trends forecaster Adi Yoffe, head of the Fast Forward business futurist company in Tel Aviv, sees the influence of AI in a different light.

She predicted last year that AI and other technologies would lead Israel into a New Chauvinism movement.

She said this would lead us to distance ourselves from confronting real facts and from engaging other sides in complex political or social situations. This was seen in the polarizing anti-judicial reform protests in the first nine months of 2023.

Yoffes annual forecast for 2024 is informed by what happened when New Chauvinism met the watershed moment of October 7.

Until that moment, we had distanced ourselves from reality and lived peaceful lives at the top of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs pyramid as a flourishing democratic country, she says.

In that pyramid are five layers, from bottom to top: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

October 7 brought us simultaneously to the bottom of Maslows pyramid, face to face with reality and seeking to ensure our physical security and defeat our enemies, she says, and at the same time we were at the top of Maslows pyramid as a successful Western capitalist country, Yoffe explains.

In my opinion, the trends of 2024 in Israel are influenced precisely by this process, she continues.

In 2024, we will want to feel safe, and therefore phenomena related to defining security, trust and solidarity will be the trends of the coming year in Israel and will spread to the wider Western world.

She believes this trend includes:

The desire for emotional closeness.

After years of being disconnected from reality and our emotions, we are hungry for deep and meaningful human connection. This is reflected in our desire to spend more time with loved ones, connect with nature, and experience positive emotions like joy, love and excitement. People will seek smaller, more intimate experiences. These experiences provide security and create clear boundaries.

The desire for reliable, real information.

Brigadier General Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesperson, was someone who instilled security evening after evening on the Israeli screen and became a reliable source of information during wartime. But it is not just about this type of information. People who do real things, with a real legacy, will gain renewed popularity, and therefore knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation will be part of the trend.

Cooperation, but not the usual kind.

Just as companies know how to cooperate on sustainability issues, we will see companies and organizations collaborating together around a goal that is greater than them. Israeli companies are collaborating around the goal of promoting blue and white products in the world during the war, and photography and image companies are collaborating to bring real images and avoid forgeries, says Yoffe.

Yet another perspective comes from trendologist, lecturer and designer Nataly Izchukov, owner of The Visionary trend forecasting and research agency in Tel Aviv.

In the last few years, many people have been feeling like theyre constantly battling: viruses, economic crises, declining trust in government and politics, pollution, new technologies, and a genuine fear of the future, she tells ISRAEL21c.

We can say with full certainty that in the past three years and counting were in the midst of a polycrisis pattern that has been accompanying us since Covid, throughout political and geopolitical swings, economic and social crises, wars, ongoing natural disasters, and again, massacre and war.

Its therefore fair to assume that at least for the next two years well be coping with trauma and crises, Izchukov says.

Driven by the human need for hope, healing and mental relief, she says, well employ four behavioral coping mechanisms: fight, flight, freeze or fawn. These 4Fs will impact many sectors and industries globally.

Fight will manifest itself as a desire for change and creating new rules, with an aesthetic rooted in the colors of blood and mud.

Flight will harness the power of artificial intelligence toward creative solutions such as clothing that protects us in emergency situations.

Freeze will mean a desire for delicate jewelry made of silver and other metals.

Fawn is The Visionarys word to describe a trend toward tribal togetherness and collective care.

In 2024, we will collectively improve our understanding of how technology can empower a new age of human creativity, how it can create optimistic, joyful, non-dystopian design codes, and how it can alleviate loneliness and add meaning to humans, says Izchukov.

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Partiers Attempt to Celebrate New Year’s Twice With Flight Between Time Zones, Accidentally Land in Wrong Year – Futurism

Posted: at 3:30 am

"You only live once, but you can celebrate New Year's Eve twice." Minutes From Midnight

A group of travelers attempting to turn back the clock to ring in the new year twice got a rude awakening.

In late December, United Airlines offered a flight from Guam to Honolulu, Hawaii, which takes just over seven hours and crosses the International Date Line. In effect, passengers on board the plane technically lose a day, which means they could do the countdown to 2024 twice.

"You only live once, but you can celebrate New Year's Eve twice," the airline tweeted at the time.

While the trip was meant to land in Honolulu at 6:50 pm on December 31 local time, a lengthy delay forced passengers to land in the wrong year. The flight was a whopping six hours late because of a late inbound flight which meant that it landed 30 minutes after midnight.

"Great idea, too bad it got delayed!" one traveler tweeted. "I was supposed to be on this flight. Double new year isnt happening anymore. Maybe next year?"

According to travel blog One Mile at a Time, this specific flight "has to be one of the most punctual flights in Uniteds system," being on time 95 percent of the time. The last time it landed after midnight was on April 20, according to the blog.

Flight UA200 wasn't the only flight attempting to jump the International Date Line. Also attempting the stunt were Cathay Pacific's CX872, which flew from Hong Kong to San Francisco, and All Nippon Airway's Tokyo to LA flight.

According to Aviation24, both flights managed to arrive well before midnight on December 31, allowing the time travelers on board to celebrate New Year's Eve twice.

So at least a few revelers got to pull it off.

More on New Year's: Careful, Lads! Scientists Link Christmas to "Penile Fractures"

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Partiers Attempt to Celebrate New Year's Twice With Flight Between Time Zones, Accidentally Land in Wrong Year - Futurism

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Adopted Child Accused of Secretly Being an Adult Takes DNA Test to Prove Age – Futurism

Posted: at 3:30 am

A DNA test has confirmed the biological age of Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian orphan who has a rare genetic dwarfism condition and was accused of being an adult plus, bizarrely, wanting to murder her adoptive parents in 2012.

According to the first episode of a new docuseries TV show called "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace," which aired on Monday, medical lab TruDiagnostic determined she was close to 22 years old as of August. That means she was far younger than what her adoptive parents Michael and Kristine Barnett claimed her to be when they accused her of attempted murder.

In 2010, the Barnetts adopted Grace as a 6-year-old girl from Ukraine. Shortly after, Michael Barnett accused her of trying to "poison and kill my wife," claiming she was an adult "sociopath."

In 2012, the pair had her legal age changed from eight to 22 and forced her to move into her own apartment.

After an investigation, the Barnetts were charged with child neglect, but charges have since been dropped against both, at least in part due to her alleged new age.

Grace, who has since been adopted by her new parents Antwon and Cynthia Mans, has long denied these allegations, claiming that she was the victim and a child at the time the Barnetts made their accusations.

And now, the DNA test suggests Grace indeed never about her real age.

"This one little piece of paper throws every single lie that the Barnetts has said right into the trash with a match," she told her new adoptive father in the show. "This is so big. Because literally, this has been 13 years of just two people lying their butts off. They ruined a kids life."

"They painted [me] as some big monster, when in reality they were the ones," she added.

It's an extremely twisted story that's strikingly reminiscent of the 2009 horror film "Orphan," in which an adult woman poses as a 9-year-old to be adopted by a couple.

More details will likely emerge as the series airs, especially when it comes to motives.

"Why did you adopt me in the first place?" she asks Michael Barnett, who agreed to be filmed for the new docuseries, in a recently shared clip.

"Many of these questions theres not going to be a single answer to," he replied, adding that he was also a victim of his now ex-wife Kristine.

More on DNA tests: DNA Tests Are a Fun Holiday Gift... Unless They Reveal a Horrifying Secret

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Congress Receiving Mysterious Classified Briefing About UFOs – Futurism

Posted: at 3:30 am

What are they getting told? Housekeeping

The House Oversight Committee is going to get a briefing on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) soon though, of course, the public won't be privy to anything they learn.

AsAxios reports, the members-only briefing will be held by the intelligence community's inspector general. Though that outlet did not give an exact date for the hearing, a similar notice obtained byThe Messenger suggests it'll be held next Tuesday.

This upcoming, closed-door hearing seems to be a response to a bipartisan effort to get the feds to open up more about what the government knows about "unidentified flying objects" or UFOs, which has included both the establishment of new offices to track and report on these sightings and claims of ongoing government coverups.

Though one could trace this entire process back to the Obama administration, when a series of quiet leaks from the intelligence and military communities began confirming suspicions that the government has more information about UAPs than it lets on, this current iteration seems to have been spurred on by a more recent whistleblower.

Last summer, former Air Force pilot and intelligence community member David Grusch made some incredible allegations, first to journalists and later in a public hearing before the House Oversight Committee, including that the US government has reverse-engineered alien crafts some, per his claims, with dead, non-human "pilots" inside of them.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of experts as well as space doomer William Shatner called bull on Grusch's evidence-free claims. But all the same, they did raise enough eyebrows for Congressional truth-seekers to call on the intelligence community to provide more information about so-called "UAP retrieval programs."

As with everything in government, it took some time to get a response from the Office of Inspector General of the Intelligence Community which, if we're being honest here, sounds a lot like a made-up "King of Spies"-style agency and there's little doubt that whatever the House Oversight Committee learns will remain classified.

Nevertheless, it is a pretty big deal that the slow drip of government UFO intel has gone from blink-and-you'll-miss-it reporting during the tumult of the Trump years to being the subject of hearings both private and public before Congress.

More on UAPs: Congress Passes Legislation Demanding US Government Release UFO Archives

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Driver Injured in First Cybertruck Crash – Futurism

Posted: at 3:30 am

It was only a matter of time before the first Tesla Cybertruck was involved in a collision.

And just before the year drew to a close, a Toyota Corolla crashed into a Cybertruck that was traveling along a road near Palo Alto, California an accident that's attracted immense scrutiny due to the Cybertruck's unconventional and widely criticized design.

According to a statement released by the California Highway Patrol, the Toyota swerved and hit a dirt embankment on the right shoulder, reentered the road shortly, crossed the double yellow lines, and crashed into a Cybertruck, which was traveling the other way.

The Tesla driver "sustained a suspected minor injury," and "declined medical transportation." No other "injuries were reported," per the CHP, suggesting the Corolla driver walked away unscathed despite images showing the vehicle's airbags deploying.

"It does not appear that the Tesla Cybertruck was being operated in autonomous mode," the statement reads.

While we await further details regarding the injuries and the investigation is still "ongoing," the crash highlights the potential risks of driving a vehicle as stiff as the Cybertruck. For decades, carmakers have designed vehicles to have crumple zones, which protect the driver during a collision. The Cybertruck, on the other hand, whose design is a notable departure from conventional car compositionand materials,has raised concerns among experts.

Apart from potential risks for the driver, experts have also pointed out concerns over pedestrian safety. The 6,600-pound EV has extremely limited sight lines and lacks visibility of what's going on in front of the vehicle and that's without getting into its ultra-hard exterior.

"The big problem there is if they really make the skin of the vehicle very stiff by using thick stainless steel, then when people hit their heads on it, it's going to cause more damage to them," Adrian Lund, the former president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), told Reuters last month.

European regulators have also expressed similar concerns, and the truck is more than likely never making it across the pond.

Tesla, however, has maintained that the Cybertruck is much safer for those behind the wheel and others sharing the road.

"Yes, we are highly confident that Cybertruck will be much safer per mile than other trucks, both for occupants and pedestrians," CEO Elon Musk tweeted.

The company has also claimed that the truck's "front underbody casting is designed to break into small pieces," which "helps reduce occupant impact by absorbing and dispensing energy."

Tesla only began delivering Cybertrucks to long-waiting customers late last year, and only time will tell whether it's a "guideless missile" or the latest and greatest in driver safety.

While experts have long voiced their concerns over the truck's unorthodox design, the rest of the EV maker's offerings have been lauded for being some of the safest cars in the world.

We'll need far more data to say for sure, but this first accident isn't necessarily promising for the brutalist pickup.

More on the truck: Cybertruck Manufacturing Is a Disaster, Tesla Insiders Say

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Driver Injured in First Cybertruck Crash - Futurism

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Kiki Goti STIRred 2023 with striking visions of maximalism and neo-futurism – STIRpad

Posted: at 3:30 am

Kiki Goti STIRred 2023 with striking visions of maximalism and neo-futurism  STIRpad

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Kiki Goti STIRred 2023 with striking visions of maximalism and neo-futurism - STIRpad

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